ad hominem, ad nauseum, ad absurdum

SNL Could Neither Invent A Face Like This nor the Mouth to Match It!

I am not certain how many out there in Lala-land or on the Nascar circuit really care about what sloppy drivel spills forth from the assholes in DC. But I, for one, am sick to death of listening to the crap from these would be kings and under-developed clowns. John Kerry must be the sorriest ass of the bunch; not to be outdone by other clowns like that ‘foul-mouth’ Newland, or Joe, the big mouth VP. But Kerry certainly takes the cake of late with his non-stop oral diarrhea.

Really, why does our archon go from Iraq bashing, to Afghan bashing, to Libya bashing, to Pakistan bashing, to Syria bashing, to Iran bashing, to Russia bashing… well you get the picture. The Masters of our Homeland are not through pulling out all the stops to convince us that the liars are those guys ‘over there.’ Well, I am sure none of you believe that tripe. Just ask Edward Snowden!

I am sick to death of watching this ongoing death-march of what passes for American leadership. I really think that the politics of today has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the body (politic) can live, and live better, without a head. And, of course, that is the original definition of the word anarchy – an-archos (without a head). So how do we silence the head? How do we rid ourselves of the overzealous liars that threaten our world and the planet with each new utterance? That is the question. Despite the ongoing death chant of the lunatics populating DC, the atmosphere here in Russia is still welcoming and friendly. No one here wishes me, or the USA harm, even though our head is trying to take their head out. People are just people, and heads of state are pariah to be disposed of ASAP!

The official narrative of the United Security States of America (USSA) is that we are exceptional people and therefore we are tasked with saving the world (from communism, from drugs, from terrorism… just name your poison). But this complex narrative is propaganda pure and simple. Fairy dust for the masses. And that is why it is so hard to break it down or see through it. The narrative itself takes for granted what all of us already took for granted… that we have some transcendent manifest destiny, and we cannot bear to live without fulfilling it. And on this basis our leaders conjure up fairytales convincing us to see our own greed and pathetic self-serving motives in a new, nobler, light. And that we are combating real boogeymen in a pitched battle of good v. evil. In short, we are not greedy, but only want to share this good life with the rest of the planet. And that is why we fight and kill, to spread freedom, democracy and conspicuous consumption globally. And to enrich the pockets of our corporate masters, just as we see Papa John’s, KFC, and Subway popping up all over Barnaul, in the heart of Russia. That is the real silent invasion. So who is the invader. At least I can show the picture! Can Obama or Kerry or Biden show pictures of Russian agents captured in Ukraine. Now, I just wait for someone in the Western press, some American journalist with balls, to give this man what for; to make Kerry and the rest of the menagerie stand and deliver. Let us get these clowns straightened out before we are led into yet another, truly unwinable war.

The US is playing the role of the “victimized” petulant little child in this scenario. It’s particularly ironic that Kerry and Obama should invoke the Geneva Convention, as they and their predecessors have openly and unilaterally flouted every international agreement they could over the course of the past thirteen years, and continue to harbor war criminals within and without their own corrupt government. If there was any doubt before there, should be none now: the world’s largest and most corrupt terrorist state (by such a large margin, it pretty much defines the term) exists right here in the good ol’ US of A within the DC beltway. Maybe Putin’s Russia will do what US citizens apparently cannot. Openly repudiate and expose Washington’s grand imperial ambitions.

Thursday night I was interviewed on PressTV regarding Kerry’s tirade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QogxaPfR2c8
We are witnessing a classic example of the law of physics that the arrow of time is irreversible. Only anarchy can save us from that.

My first take on this overall situation is bafflement. It makes no sense whatsoever from the US standpoint to start a war that they have a very real risk of losing in this region, other than to confirm the entire Obama administration as a trojan horse for the most conservative of the neo-conservative interests. It doesn’t seem to be kabuki theater with Putin playing a willing part either, as some speculated originally. Just pure naked aggression on the part of the US, where even its European allies seem to be understandably hesitant, and its own military, ground down by almost 13 years of the US’s own false flag declared War on Terror, would definitely be tasked to its limits.

I can only conclude that there must be some larger strategic play going on here for natural resources in the region, which tells me the ‘playas’ in the natural gas industry know that shortages are looming, with dire ramifications. Nuclear war, limited or otherwise, over the Ukraine hardly seems to be worth the trouble otherwise.

To put it in Cesar Millan, aka The Dog Whisperer terms, The US is coming from a posture of fear on this one. Tail tucked between its legs, ears pinned back, histrionic frothing at the mouth behavior in an effort to convince its threat that it’s serious and means business. Putin’s calm but firm demeanor thus far has been the perfect prescription for such a situation, unfortunately, to no apparent effect yet. Makes me wonder about the whole corrupt Washington establishment. Are they coming completely unglued before our very eyes and/or are there rogue elements within the MIC that are now making a naked power grab over a typically weak and ineffectual Democratic administration? And is this now one big miscalculation, as the US realizes it’s being exposed as the naked aggressor for all to see on the world stage?

Can’t say for sure at this point, but it’s safe to say that the old Doomsday Clock might need to be revived, because the US – the world’s first and only nuclear terrorist (and under another Democratic administration at that) – once again seems hell bent for leather on nuclear annihilation. And the Democrats? This effectively marks their extinction for once and for all. Whether or not they continue to exist as a nominal political party, they have erased any reasonable doubt that they are beholden to the same insane interests as the their neo-con “rivals” across the aisle. The US experiment with democracy appears to be over now for good, and fittingly, it was a democratic administration that hammered the final nail in the coffin.

all of this while The Emperor is in Asia quietly giving away the last vestiges of US sovereignty via the TPP. just what the world needs, more junk shipped around the world by container ships. globalism is a bust, it’s no good for anyone except the .1%, the rest of us can go hang. there has to be more behind this situation in Ukraine, but they’re not telling. jingoistic nationalism hasn’t done much for the people of the world, globalism even less. i think our rulers believe they have it all figured out, how to subjugate a population and rape the world in ten easy steps.

the Democratic Party? they have their constituency built around how to screw the other guy just as the Republicans do. Progressives? LOL!!!!! a true Progressive from a bygone era would be mystified by the blather coming from the likes of our current puppet regime the Dems have never been real enough for those with eyed to see, always identified as Indie or Dem, but that’s over now. if yours truly has figured it out? the rest can’t be far behind.

Actually, it’s a backhanded way to reinforce US sovereignty, in that TPP is first and foremost a US corporate initiative, which wholly owns the US Gov these days. When corporations are citizens what does that make the rest of us? Corporate citizens, if we’re lucky? Walk Hard baby!

Brings to mind the Cuban missile crisis again, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s what this is all about? Reclaiming the dem’s tarnished image from the Cuban missile crisis, Bay of Pigs, and Kennedy’s plans to withdraw from Vietnam (an act for which he was publicly executed shortly thereafter). Could it possibly be that simple? Obama as potted plant public repudiation of the Dems’ Kennedy legacy. He’s already repudiated prosecutions for torture, dismantlement of the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, Wall St prosecutions and regulations enhancement/enforcement, etc. Hmm…

Question is, why now? Was this a long range plan or a spur of the moment thing? I dunno, doesn’t make any sense to me unless the US was trying to rattle the nuclear saber all along. A conventional war in Ukraine seems completely untenable to me and would likely wreck what remains of the global economy.

i think Malthus has hit on it below, the world’s reserve currency. US ruling class got tired of our working class making demands, so……………………………………………………..
farm labor out to other countries, make big profits, heap big profits, one fly in the ointment, rest of the world got wize, why do we need America? US energy sector is sucking it’s last breath, fracking, deep water blowouts, China, India, have their own restive populations, why let the Yanks suck off of us? US becoming so impoverished the market is going to crash, US no longer produces anything we need except food, we can get fire sale prices once the US crashes, look at it from their perspective.

the US ruling class has made a big mistake, too big for their britches, our economy has gotten so hollowed out the big debate is over the minimum wage for what are essentially service workers. the only thing forestalling chaos here is the ag sector, we can feed our people, if that goes due to drought, soil depletion, energy shortages, RIP USA.

our masters in DC and NYC are desperate to keep the financial ship afloat by any means necessary, except sharing the wealth and financially empowering people to move out of the big cities.

As the world is waking up and planing to take the dollar down these same clown criminal idiots in Washington are same lunatics that to save our wonderful way of life will be the ones to start throwing bombs.

Why now? Because the financial/military/industrial complex has wrecked the European economy and Ukraine has land for big ag, plus minerals, plus maybe room for Europeans to spread out, since they have a lot of immigrants. Anyway, it’s all part of the BIG PLAN to finish raping the planet, then high off to another one, leaving the 99% behind.

“Our fear that communism might someday take over the world blinds us to the fact that anit-communism already has” Michael Parrenti

As bad as these stooges are think of the Dulles Bros. from the 50-60’s. Far worse!

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 89-91 and the loss of the Cold War as a justification for U.S. military intervention abroad was a deep loss for the MIC. In 99′ the “Project for a New American Century” dreamed up “The War On Terror” and “Muslim Extremists” which worked for a while, but how many false flags can you frighten even a cowed & pampered population like Americans with? Overall it’s been a poor substitute and a net loss overall. Small gains at extremely high costs and caused us to take our eye off the backyard juveniles in Central and South America which has allowed certain client states to assert their own interests. Bad!

But as shrouded in Top Secret National Security hocus-pocus that Washington hides behind it’s not difficult to figure out American foreign policy. America seeks worldwide hegemony. Our exceptional state after our own internal colonizing via “Manifest Destiny” has like any cancer sought new opportunities via Globalization and Democracy. Recent accomplishments: Israel is the dominant state in the middle East with unilateral U.S. support. Egypt uprising disappeared. Iraq gone. Lybia gone. Baltic States Check! Today what stands in the way of our DR. No conspiracy of world domination? Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela, South Africa (although it’s largely been co-opted) Cuba and Syria. Even though Russia is no longer a collectivist state that doesn’t matter. Geopolitically they are a huge threat to American hegemony. Putin checked our move in Syria a year ago and as a consequence he must go.

Yes America is an empire in decline but it’s a huge mistake to underestimate it. This hulking metallic mass of protoplasm, particularly in it’s weakened state, is even more of a lethal menace than before. If you assume these morons won’t push the button think again.

Good points all, especially with regard to the 60’s era machinations. Still this particular time and place seems to be very curious – and risky! – indeed. This has all the hallmarks of yet another botched Democratic administration foreign policy imbroglio (Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Iran Hostage rescue, Mogadishu, etc.). The dimwit Dems want so bad to be just like their big brother Republicans, but the fucking little dimwit egg-heads just can’t get it right, no matter how hard they try. I think they opened this whole can of worms thinking that the Ukraine would be a pushover, especially with Putin and Russia being under the spotlight of the winter Olympics.Unfortunately for them, when it all began to unravel they found it was they who were in the world spotlight, leading to a whole series of doubling down moments since, which not even their hawkish conservative allies can now get them out of. They’re backed into a corner of their own making, damned if they do and damned if they don’t, desperately looking for some way to save face and get out of the situation. But once again, unfortunately for them, their foreign policy bona fides will take yet another serious hit if they come out of this situation perceived as weak, hence their current ‘snarling pissy little lapdog’ posture. One thing’s for sure, whether you’re liberal or conservative, pro or anti US, these fucking ass-clowns are as inept as they come (by design me thinks) and are nothing but dangerous for world peace. Who woulda thunk Bush/Cheney would looks so, dare I say it, grown up compared to this current Keystone Cops bunch? At least with the conservatives you know what you’re getting when you pull the lever.

Disaffected I have reached the conclusion that the Democrat/Republican strategies are about personal power but there is no disagreement. We are like the too far gone alcoholic at the company party who pinched every woman on the ass and pissed in the punch bowl. We are beyond embarrassment and we defy anyone to call us out on it. Look at the European lapdogs who are terrified to raise a dissenting opinion. Our attitude is: “Here is your Democracy. Now Shut-the-fuck-up!”

Mike,
Lots of good comments and food for thought here today. I absolutely think there’s more going on here than meets the eye. It all reads like a great spy novel so far. A real who dunnit. Personally, I agree and think the whole economic/resources ponzi scheme may be about to collapse (possibly even planned?) and this whole affair may be a way to mitigate or even intensify that in some way. Collapse only strengthens the hand of those in charge.

And I can only imagine Putin is enjoying the spectacle of watching the Dems squirm. Personally, I’d like to see a mano-a-mano WWF fight between our elected heads of government. My money’s on “Vlad the Impaler” beating the snot out of lil’ Barry OBomber, then letting up and torturing his ass slowly for awhile before finishing him off. I’d pay to see it! Hell, I’m sure Vlad would let them throw in Lurch Kerry too just to make it interesting. Wonder if the big dumbass bleeds green?

yes, i realize that, also they may have some tech which is super secret. however, i have always been skeptical of the feasibility of space travel, the distances are truly interstellar, the energy needs too extreme, and deep space is just so bleak, near absolute zero, no air.

i would be much more sanguine about our solar system moving toward an interstellar object thru its own natural motion then i would about a man made craft being able to accomplish this feat.

that being said, i wouldn’t put it past the elite taking the first chance they had to get off this rock.

Gotta side with Archdruid on this one, talk of humans’ ability to survive, never mind flourish, on another planet/extraterrestrial alternate living pod are greatly exaggerated at this time by secular technologists. I think we’re going down with the one we have.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. – Hamlet (1.5.167-8)
i wouldn’t put that one past them either.

General “Buck” Turgidson: Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!

there are unexplained hums reported from time to time, seem to be coming from underground.

General “Buck” Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn’t that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.

Muffley: You mean, people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?
Dr. Strangelove: It would not be difficult, Mein Führer! Nuclear reactors could, heh…I’m sorry, Mr. President. Nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely. Greenhouses could maintain plant life. Animals could be bred and slaughtered. A quick survey would have to be made of all the available mine sites in the country, but I would guess that dwelling space for several hundred thousands of our people could easily be provided.

Strangelove might be the best and most prescient movie of the 20th century. A true masterpiece that just get’s better and better as time goes by. And living underground for an extended period might definitely be in the plans for the self-appointed elite. I guess it would be fitting if we eventually evolved into a mole people after ruining our above ground environment, although where the energy would come from for all that remains to be seen.

You still alive and kickin’ over there in Okie land today HT? Looks like Tornado Alley was kickin’ it hard last night! Just windy as hell over in the Land of Enchantment. We’re just west of the dry line over here, so no tornadoes for us, just lots of mega straight line winds coming down off the mountains, probably the ones that meet up with all that Gulf moisture over your way and make life miserable for you all.

storms were NE of the big town, yes, the ghetto grinds on. approved for unemployment. still must search for jobs.
we got a bit of rain, nothing close to what it will take to break the drought. if and when it goes bad it will be just like the old days, one year it will just hit, and remember, The Dust Bowl was about more than OK, it was KS, TX.

RE the dustbowl, I learned about it well during my days living in Eastern NM. The dustbowl had its roots in eastern NM and the panhandle of TX, where the idea of breaking the topsoil and trying raise water intensive crops is now and has always been pure madness. Even now, the wind blows so hard there and carries so much dirt that it will penetrate window seals and collect on inside window sills, especially considering that home construction in that part of the world is not known for the highest quality. And swamp coolers? Nothing like having mud blown into your house in the guise of “cooling”.

they say we’ve had 3 inches of rain this year, the trees are budding out, the grass is growing, for now. 89 degrees predicted for Sunday, i predict it will break 90, and this in the beginning of May. what will August look like? who knows. when i was a kid it got hot, but it rained year round, now it rains in the Spring, that’s about it. i’m not saying it never rains other times, but not the gully washers we used to get in July/August. the gentle 2-3 day spring soakers have been gone for 20 years, everything is fast moving. we now have two seasons essentially, cold and dry and hot and dry. the trees lose their leaves in summer due to the heat, not from it getting colder in the fall. don’t know the figures, but it seems that the wind is worse.

the stupidest frickin’ thing is people watering their grass, then you have to cut it. i do use a power mower, use about 2 gallons of gas per year, but i don’t water my grass, i’m glad when it burns out, means i don’t have to cut it.

i see these ads on TV for Scotts turfbuilder, seeds, fertilizer, riding mowers. the American fascination with neat orderly lawns and gardens, it says something about our country’s psychology. it’s not just keep up with the Jones’s, it’s about power and control, uniformity, fear.

i first noticed changes in the weather in the 70’s, could be because i grew up. by the mid 80’s it was definitely changing, there was one spell where we had over 100 every day for 2 months, 2 weeks out of that it was 108 every day, the night time low was 98, we were literally frying eggs on the sidewalk.

it was 4-5 years ago when we went into this current cycle of hot/cold and dry.

the other thing i see is more and more country boys in the city, for what reason i don’t know. family farm out of business? Wal-Mart putting the locals out of business. dribe out in the country and these small towns are dead, boarded up buildings, their own sort of ghetto.

any how, the weather is changing, i see it, evidence of the glazzies, oh my brothers and sisters.

sure, sure, and the Dust Bowl wasn’t due to the spurt of industrial activity at the start of the 20th century either. get a load of this

“Space.
We need to establish a colony of around 100,000 people in near-orbital space.
Once we do that, we (as a species) stand a better chance of surviving this, and then comes the possibility that future generations can do what they can to clean it up.
If we can get one colony established — in, say, a Stanford Torus-model space colony — there is a good reason to believe we can mass produce these on a large scale. Provided with a high capacity space elevator, we can crank out 50K to 100K of these and put all of humanity (that wants to leave) up in orbit and out of harm’s way.
We can mine the moon and harvest material from the asteroid belt for a few thousand years while the Earth recovers.
All is not lost. There is reason to be optimistic in the face of this overwhelming horror that is rapidly approaching.”

I used to post to a niche blog put up by a rapid secular technologist. He too could see all the problems we faced alright, but he too had a naive belief that technology was going to magically cure everything (I think he worked for NASA too, although I’m sure he was just a low level functionary), just because some smart people were allegedly “theorizing about it” already. He eventually ran me off when I continued to pop holes in his pie in the sky stupidity. There’s a whole world of difference between “theorizing” about something because you read it in some sci-fi rag and actually getting it up and running sustainably. Unfortunately, we’re likely to continue doing mostly the former in the coming years until it slowly begins to dawn on us that we’re shit out of options. IMO we’re already there. Denial indeed.

To HT re: The True Believer. One could easily argue that today’s global capitalism is just such a mass movement, although all good capitalists insist that today’s terrorist movements, which I doubt even exist to the extent we’re being told they do, are the true believers. Yeah, I know about reading some pretty prophetic books while languishing in public high school. Read Toffler’s Culture Shock my junior year just before I dropped out and finished up with night school. Turned out to be right on just about everything unfortunately, Found high school at the time to be a total waste of time. Hate to say it, but the best times of my life were in the military, where we at least had a purpose. Civilian life has only offered up more of the same pettiness and bullshit that was so rampant in high school, imagine that! Although, the military was eagerly adopting the same corporate bullshit when I retired, so I’m sure it’s much the same now.

After all, the second leading delusion in our culture these days, after the wish for a something-for-nothing magic energy rescue remedy, is the idea that we can politically organize our way out of the epochal predicament of civilization that we face.

Political forces, especially in the United States, are doing what they naturally do when faced with such massive internal contradictions: coming completely unraveled. Unfortunately for us all, they’re very rarely immediately replaced by something better.

I am not certain how many out there in Lala-land or on the Nascar circuit really care about what sloppy drivel spills forth from the assholes in DC. But I, for one, am sick to death of listening to the crap from these would be kings and under-developed clowns.

Oh, almost forgot to add, what a lead in! I think Sandy is conjuring the spirit of Kunstler this week!

With you 100% Sandy.
This is really disgusting what is happening. I am sending emails to friends and family each day but mostly it is met with yawns and eye-rolls. I told them “you break it you own it” but apart from one or two who have expressed interest mostly they have been met with disinterest. I actually think Americans have some wierd “third rail” curiousity thing going on whereby they know that doing something like invading a new foreign sovereign country is bad but some part of their sado-masochistic-power-control-center curiousity (and this is more common with our leader than anyone) just seems to want to know what would happen IF they did that thing that they KNOW they should not do.

I told them “you break it you own it” but apart from one or two who have expressed interest mostly they have been met with disinterest.

Funny, that’s the line Powell tried on Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld to much the same effect. I think Americans figure at this point that they own everything anyway, so what’s one more invasion more or less? Apart from the Sunday morning talk shows, where it’s just another opportunity for the faux right to attack the faux left, the Ukraine has pretty much completely fallen off the MSM radar. What with so many other CIA sponsored false flag incidents going on daily the world over to keep the huddling masses cowed and silent, the world’s a busy place these days.

Love the hairstyles, the music, AND the message. Even lived about 200 miles east of this performance at the time. Barely 30, indestructible, and loving life! Those were INDEED the days my friend! Which takes us back a few decades more:

Sorry Ron, this video falls short for me in all the ways that typical “new age” videos do. They offer a clear outline of the problems facing us (not a tall order at this point) and a similarly clear call to action, but without offering details of any kind of what is to be done. And the devil at this point is clearly in the details. Which is indeed the problem with any typical “leftist” proposal to “save the world” at this point. We are WAY beyond any sort of mainstream “feel good” proposal to set things right at this point. The message now, and this is one that virtually NOBODY will be willing to hear, is one of how do we begin to power down IMMEDIATELY with IMMEDIATE AND ONGOING casualties in at least a somewhat humane manner, in an attempt to at least somewhat mitigate the environmental catastrophe we’ve created over the last 200 years or so. In other words, how do we reduce a ridiculous human population level of 7B+ and growing to something sustainable in a single generation AND THEN mitigate the damage that has ALREADY BEEN DONE? In two words: WE CAN’T!

So to answer your original question. What does it mean to be grounded?

Ultimately, to accept your ultimate physical fate. You and I were both born of terrestrial means to which we will ALL too soon return.

As a species, to realize that we share terra firma with everything around us.

As an individual human, to understand that we’re all in this together.

But perhaps MOST IMPORTANTLY as super individuated little humans (chimps really) in the west, that we – in all our western hubris – didn’t (knowingly) create all that goes on around us, and we DAMN SURE don’t have ultimate control over where it all goes from here.

I think most of what Grounded Being posts is aimed at those who are destroying the world.
I agree with all three of you. We have all made our own beds and must sleep in them.
But I do feel that those on the higher planning levels (the financiers) are at the root of all money grubbing evil and should bare the brunt of what lies ahead of us.
If it were up to me I would tie them to a post on the beach a few hours before a tsunami
hits.
Our lives are our of our own making. I have accepted my fate whatever it may be. It keeps me humble. There will be a mass culling of the herd. It is inevitable. We simply cannot live as if tomorrow never comes. I, for one, can’t wait. So that the rebuild/healing process can start. My wife on the other hand, not so much. She is a creature of comfort. I am a glass half full type of guy so I have faith in my scrappy ability to survive.
If I survive the near future I will do my best to make the place that I am in better. The ultra liberals cannot be a part of it as well as the ultra conservative.
The far left liberal viewpoint of “everything goes for free” is not okay. We have to have some kind of standards. The far right viewpoint of “nothing goes without a profit” is just as bad, We have to do what we can for each other.
We have lost the middle ground somewhere. Our flexibility with guidelines so to speak. Personal responsibility is lacking.
Some of my students hate to hear me talk about responsible usage of fossil fuels. These students want to build big four wheel drive monster trucks. My answer to them is “Sorry, at 15 to 20 dollars a gallon, who can afford it and what is the greater environmental cost?”
Here’s to the future, people! Keep your eyes and ears open and remain limber at all times!

You see how facile Siberians are becoming with the tools of the West. They are learning to make dreams come true!“Training and Investing: Earn Your Dream” (translation of the billboard)
complete with ticker graph outlining your new car!

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending) Russians are buying in to the capitalist delusion at the end of its run. Unfortunate in that the proles will lose everything, just like their prole brethren everywhere else; fortunate in that their exposure to the capitalist malignancy was at least somewhat abbreviated, and thus their losses at least somewhat limited.

Meanwhile, most working class Americans, god love ’em and brainwashed to the virtues of capitalism from their first breath, will go to their grave blaming themselves for their lack of “economic vitality,” never suspecting for a moment that they were doomed from the moment they were born to be pawns in a global power game they had no power to influence whatsoever. All while dutifully and patriotically rubber-stamping unprecedented global environmental and human atrocities to support their own brief and diminishing lifestyle.

From my usual cynical point of view, I can only conclude that mankind in general is getting what it deserves, in that the only people who seem to be “getting it” these days regarding the evils of capitalism are those of us who are fortunate to have enjoyed some of the fruits of it and come out on the other side. And of course we’re all vulnerable to the charge of “sour grapes.” As in, you had a taste, but simply couldn’t get enough. So you just want to preclude the possibility of anyone else getting a taste. Might even be true for all I know.

But motivations aside, capitalism CLEARLY ain’t producing enough to go around in the US alone (see my ham-handed posted videos), nevermind the rest of the world, so I think the ship has sailed on the notion of “a rising economic tide lifts all boats,” especially when you consider that the economic tide is no longer rising, and in all likelihood, never will again.

to paraphrase a previous title of one of Sandy’s posts
The Heat Is On!http://www.weather.com/safety/heat/dallas-oklahoma-city-wichita-record-heat-20140504
100. that’s not a basketball score, that’s degrees, what is expected today, May 6th, not June 6th, or even July 6th, May 6th. well, it will burn out the grass so it doesn’t have to be mowed, but it will also likely burn out the wheat crop. there is supposed to be storms on Thursday, we’ll see,

it’s not cooling down in Ukraine either, although for some reason it’s not being stressed om the nightly news,

didn’t make 100 yesterday, only 95. the fires are due to the cedar trees, which are an introduced non-native (species?).
the cedar trees suck up water, they are worthless, when grass fires get going the cedars go up like torches and then smolder, reigniting the fires.
it’s shaping up to be a mess, very windy, dry, too much energy in the atmosphere, ripe for tornadoes.
Dust Bowl could be here anytime, just as predicted by some. or not. we’ll see how it works out.

I think we’re sending another round your way HT. Windy(!) and cold as all git out today with even more on tap for tomorrow. Look out OKies!

By the way, I think dust bowl redux is your guys’ long term prognosis, albeit with dramatic interludes of flooding and other crazy shit. Ain’t AGW grand? Wonder if Inhofe will ever eat his words, or whether he’ll remain in denial for the rest of his few remaining days.

Great video link from NakCap this morning. Alas, it does little more than belabor the obvious (which, unfortunately, is not at all obvious to too many of the jerkoffs in charge), but it certainly provides an illuminating roadmap for where we are at the current moment. And it points to a trend that will no doubt continue until the breaking point: the rich will continue to get richer and the poor will continue to get poorer. Let’s see if it works.

i may just turn this into a rant, i have alluded to this sort of thing many times.

The First Xenobiology Conference (XB1)
May 6th -8th 2014 – Genoa, Italy
Xenobiology (XB) is the endeavor to overcome the constraints imposed by evolution on natural living organisms. It is an emerging field in the context of synthetic biology, encompassing the design, generation and evolution of alternative forms of life.

A major goal of the XB1 conference participants will be to assess how alternative life should be designed to [p]reserve human health and the environment.

Not surprisingly, the “movement” is decidedly human centered. Kind of reminds me of the religious nuts who maintained (actually, commenter F Beard over at NakCap still maintains) that the universe is earth centered. Perhaps that’s Secular Technologists’ greatest fault, that their view of technological “progress” is almost exclusively human centered. In any case this idea is pure folly. Thankfully, peak fossil fuel energy will doom it and other silly ideas like it to the scrap bin before they ever get started. Science without wisdom (nuclear energy anyone?) has proven to be an unmitigated recipe for disaster over the past few hundred years.

Well, another day, another NFL draft concluded, and another few hundred hard working, albeit very fortunate, physical freaks anointed with at least a small fortune for performing athletic feats that in the bigger picture don’t really amount to anything. Don’t get me wrong, I love the athleticism involved and even love the game itself when it’s played well (which, unfortunately these days, it more often than not isn’t), but of course the obscene salaries paid to top players in the NFL, even compared to its lesser talented journeyman players, has evolved into a perfect reflection of the gross inequities of American society itself. ‘Winner take all’ clearly ain’t working to produce a society that most of us want to live in. I wonder how long it will take enough of us to realize that to throw off the shackles that prevent something better from taking its place?

Admittedly, I didn’t know all of the details behind the hoax previously. Not that I ever gave it that much thought in the first place. The supposed “value” of capitalist secondary equity markets has always eluded me. Pure pieces of paper (wishes and dreams), nothing more.

Just to add, given that he did it almost all on his own, I think Jeff Lynne might be ‘pound for pound’ one of the greatest rock musicians ever. He’s certainly right up there with the Fab Four at the very least based on musicianship.